Driver information systems that output text information via a display are exemplified by receivers for traffic messages transmitted by radio, e.g., as described in published German patent document DE 35 36 820. Published German patent document DE 35 36 820 and ISO standards 14819-1, -2 and -3 describe, among other things, a method for encoded transmission of traffic messages in which a present message is broken down into elements at the transmitter end, the elements being encoded according to a catalog of standardized message elements and these codes then being transmitted. At the receiver end, the received codes are assigned to message elements stored in a table, and thus the traffic message composed of message elements assigned to the codes is displayed on the display. Memory media that are frequently replaceable such as CD-ROMs and DVDs, for example, are used for storing the decoding table.
Today's receivers for traffic messages of the type described here often have a display having a capacity of four to five lines, usually having at least 16 characters each. To be able to use the same decoding table, and thus the same data medium for decoding traffic message codes received via radio in a plurality of receivers, the message elements stored there are usually limited to a length of 16 characters. If the display capacity of such a driver information system is to be utilized optimally, decoding tables adapted to a particular display capacity of the particular device are needed at the present time.